Four Key Areas to Examine when Considering Buying a Newer Waterloo Region Home

If you are considering purchasing an older home, it makes sense to be on the lookout for certain structural problems as many of these homes are prone to such things. However, when homebuyers are considering buying a newer Waterloo Region home they will often fail to look for those kinds of things because their natural assumption is that a newly built home would not suffer from the same problems. That can be a dangerous (and often rather costly) assumption to make, as just because something is relatively new does not mean that it is perfect.

Here are four key areas that should be paid careful attention to even if a property is a recent construction:

Electrics

A newer home will have a newer electrical system, but that does not necessarily mean that it has a perfectly safe or efficient one. In some cases, if a number of homes have been built at once shortcuts are taken to bring the projects in on time and they may include employing electricians who are less qualified than others or using components that are inexpensive but not that efficient.

The Foundation

The foundation of a home can be compromised at any time, especially if certain construction procedures have been followed incorrectly. The landscaping around a property can become a problem in this respect too. Many home builders, especially in communities, are planting trees very close to new properties for both aesthetic and shade properties. If planted incorrectly and too close to the property though as these trees age and spread their roots they may crack the foundation, resulting in all kinds of problems.

Water Issues

It takes just a few weeks for mold to begin forming and even many new homes suffer from ‘bad sinks’ – sinks already suffering from (often unseen) mold problems as the caulking used to place them was inadequate or of lesser quality.

General Landscaping

Ideally, there should be no plants directly in contact with any home, new or not, and such things should be kept at least a foot away from the foundations. If they are not the watering such things require can result in the soil expanding and contracting at irregular rates which may compromise the structure of the foundations over time.

Some of these things cannot, of course, be spotted with the naked eye as a part of simple showing walk-through. That is why it is so important that homebuyers commission a full home inspection on any property they are considering buying, even if it is just a few years old.